Russia former deputy defence minister faces embezzlement trial

Russia former deputy defence minister faces embezzlement trial
by AFP Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Jan 29, 2025

A former Russian deputy defence minister, Timur Ivanov, was in court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on charges of embezzlement and money laundering that could see him jailed for years.

Russia has arrested a number of generals and military leaders in a clampdown on allegations of rampant inefficiency and corruption amid the Ukraine offensive.

Ivanov, who previously oversaw military construction projects and property, appeared at Moscow's Khamovnichesky court.

In video released by the court, Ivanov smiled as he was led in, wearing handcuffs.

Ivanov was detained in April last year. Investigators said he embezzled over three billion rubles (45 million euros at the time) from a collapsed bank and over 200 million rubles while buying ferries to serve Crimea. The charges of embezzlement and money laundering carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.

He also faces a bribery charge in a separate case that has not yet come to trial.

Ivanov was formally sacked in June 2024, two months after his arrest, after working as deputy minister since 2016.

He will be tried alongside Anton Filatov, the former director of state defence corporation Oboronlogistika, owned by the defence ministry.

Both men denied any guilt while under investigation, TASS news agency reported.

Ivanov's lawyer Murad Musayev told RIA Novosti news agency the charges were "completely groundless".

The judge on Wednesday agreed to prosecutors' request to move the case to a higher tribunal, the Moscow City Court.

Prosecutors asked for the trial to proceed behind closed doors because one case document "could be secret", Musayev said.

The judge also extended the defendants' pre-trial detention until July, TASS reported.

- 'Glamorous general' -

The embezzlement case involves funds from Moscow-based Intercommerz Bank, which collapsed in 2016.

Filatov was charged with embezzlement in 2018 and then the case was closed, only to be reopened in 2024.

Ivanov was slapped with sanctions by the European Union in 2022 as the defence ministry's top official in charge of construction of military facilities.

He was also the subject of an investigation published in 2022 by the Anti-Corruption Foundation -- created by late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

It claimed the deputy minister oversaw -- and profited from -- construction projects in Ukraine's Mariupol, which Moscow captured after a weeks-long siege at the start of the conflict.

The foundation also alleged the minister divorced his wife to allow her to bypass EU sanctions against him while living in France.

Russian media have dubbed Ivanov "the glamorous general" and his family assets frozen by the Russian court include 23 luxury and vintage cars, TASS said, citing court documents.